"The ongoing U.S. oil boom has flooded the Gulf Coast with domestic crude to levels not seen in decades, creating a homegrown oil glut in the nation's refining center just as the Obama administration prepares to rule on a pipeline that would add a torrent of heavy Canadian crude to the same region."
"It's just the latest in a string of developments that have surprised and roiled oil markets since 2009, when the combination of falling fuel demand and an unexpected surge in U.S. oil and natural gas production began undermining widely held assumptions about the nation's need for imports.
"U.S. oil production is at a point that is changing the entire globe, and this is just more evidence that the U.S. producers are far exceeding anybody's expectations," said Phil Flynn, senior oil analyst at Price Futures Group. "This is part and parcel of the big story - the U.S. energy boom."
Conditions have changed so radically that U.S. refiners are now exporting record amounts of fuel to overseas customers, and there's a parade of tankers delivering Texas oil to refineries on the east coast of Canada. As these and other surprising trends unfold, it's becoming increasingly clear that the controversial Canadian oil import pipeline, the Keystone XL, is not an urgently needed link."
Elizabeth Douglass reports for InsideClimate News November 7, 2013.
SEE ALSO:
"Canadian Oil Rides South Even Without Keystone Pipeline" (CNBC)
"Keystone XL Developer: Other Pipeline Companies Will Face Similar Hurdles" (E2 Wire/The Hill)
"Congress Seen Debating Oil Exports While Wary of Gas Cost" (Bloomberg)
"OPEC Expects North American Shale Oil Output to Jump" (Wall St. Journal)
"Should the US Export Oil?" (Christian Science Monitor)
"Congress Considers Lifting Oil-Export Restrictions" (National Journal)
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